The future of Trumpism is on campus

In August of 2016, Michael Straw had just gaveled in the year’s first meeting of the Penn State College Republicans. The classroom was packed, with students filling every seat and lining the walls. Many were returning members, and some were brand new. But a few weren’t members at all—and they were angry. Halfway through the meeting, they erupted into chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump.”

From the back of the room, someone shouted, “Cuck!”

The week before the meeting—which was captured on video—the College Republicans announced that they would not endorse Donald Trump for president. Straw, a senior at Penn State and the group’s president, had surveyed dues-paying members, and found that most didn’t support the party’s nominee. Thus, the executive board took to Facebook to post the club’s first unendorsement of a Republican candidate: “Conservative ideals must be defended from individuals who have tried to extinguish them in the past,” the statement concluded. “Future generations depend on us to defend these principles so they may enjoy them as well.”